Youngjae continued to smile at the customers as they walked out of the theater room, some still excitedly talking about the movie and making explosion noises. His ‘Thank you for coming’ comments probably sounded as tired as he was. The Friday night shift wasn’t easy especially nice he had two classes at the local college earlier in the day. He waved goodbye to the last group of people and looked inside the aisle but, didn’t see anyone so he sighed and let his exhaustion show on his face.

                “Chin up, Youngjae!” Jongup said as he pushed his own trashcan to a showing room farther in, “I’m taking the last room so, after you finish cleaning that one you get to go home.”

                Youngjae gave a tired smile, “Thanks, Jongup.”

                Jongup waved and pushed forward leaving Youngjae by himself. ‘One more room, I can do this!’ Youngjae pumped himself up for clean the room, more energized now that the light of leaving was visible.               

                He walked into the room pushing the trashcan as he thought about all the things he was going to do after work. He was still deciding on which take-out place to order from when he heard a sniffle. He stopped in confusion and listened.

                Youngjae groaned silently, ‘Seriously? Someone is still in here crying??’

                He left his trashcan and walked the rest of the way in to peek around the stairs. There, about 6 rows up and in the middle, was a man about Youngjae’s age with light brown hair. The crying man mumbled something before breaking out into more tears.

                Youngjae leaned back against the soft walls and sighed, ‘Why do I have to deal with this? I just want to go home…’

                After about a minute the crying noise died down again so Youngjae walked in. He made eye contact with the other young adult and slightly smiled; trying to show him it was time to go. The crying man sniffed and quickly wiped at his eyes with his jean jacket.

                “Sorry,” Youngjae said, “But I need to clean the room.”

                “It’s okay, I understand…” He looked around frantically and then turned back to Youngjae, “Do you have any napkins?”

                “Uhh…” Youngjae rummaged through his pockets and eventually found some, “Yeah.”

                Youngjae walked up the stairs. He tried not to grimace when he saw the mess of popcorn, candy wrappers, and napkins that lay in the man’s lap and on the floor around him.

               “I’m sorry about the mess,” He sniffled, “I dropped the bag of popcorn during one of exciting scenes.” He  chuckled, “I forgot it was there.”

                ”It is okay,” Youngjae handed him the napkin and finally got a good look at him. He was dressed really well by good brands, if his friend Junhong had taught him anything. His eyes were puffy and red from crying but, his smile when he accepted the napkin was mesmerizing. Not even loudly blowing his nose into the napkin was enough to ruin his attractive image in Youngjae’s mind. The crying though was a little concerning.

                Youngjae stood there feeling awkward just waiting, “So, do you want to talk about it?”

                “It was just a really sad ending.”

                “Right,” Youngjae nodded in understanding. Then he furrowed his brow as he tried to remember which movie had been playing, “Wait, wasn’t this the newest Fast & Furious movie?”

                “And a great one,” The man groaned.

                “But, it is an action movie. I just don’t see--”

                “I just wasn’t ready for that ending man,” he shook his head. “It was glorious and an amazing farewell to one of my favorite actors.”

                Understanding fell upon Youngjae and he nodded again, “I understand.”

                “He had such a future ahead of him. He was going to have another baby and I mean living near the beach must have been amazing. Like, such a great life was ahead of him.”

                “I think you are mixing up the actor and the character’s life.”

                The man ignored Youngjae, “I knew the ending was coming but, I just wasn’t… prepared.”

                ‘Dear god, he’s starting to cry again…’

                “What’s your name?” Youngjae asked.

                “Da—Daehyun.”

                “Alright Daehyun, I need to clean the theater so I need to ask you to leave,” Youngjae asked as politely as he was able to.

                “But, people will see me crying,” Daehyun looked up at him pitifully, “Can’t I just stay here while you clean.”

                “No,” Youngjae lied immediately with more force than needed. He didn’t want to deal with Daehyun anymore but, seeing his dejected look was making Youngjae feel bad.

                “How about I help you walk to the bathroom?” Youngjae finally gave in.

                Daehyun smiled, “That would be great.”

                “Fantastic,” Youngjae sighed and started walking to the exit. He involuntarily flinched when he heard all the popcorn fall off of Daehyun’s lap but, he refused to turn back to look at the disaster that awaited his return.     

                The walk was silent besides Daehyun’s sniffling and the complaining going on in Youngjae’s mind. It didn’t take long to reach the door and Youngjae’s stride didn’t change when he went to push the door open but, Daehyun grabbed his arm.

                “Wait!”

                “What now?”

                Daehyun looked down at the floor sheepishly, “Can I hide behind you as we walk so people won’t see my face?”

                “Yeah, sure, fine, whatever,” Youngjae shrugged before starting to walk out the door, only this time, a college-aged man had his arms around Youngjae’s neck with his face buried between Youngjae’s neck and his own arms. ‘This is so ridiculous…’ Youngjae had to force himself not to shake his head.

                The bathroom wasn’t too far away and the two of them eventually made it there even if the walk was awkwardly done. The workers cleaning the main room pointed and giggled at Youngjae and he knew he would hear about this for at least a week.

                “And here we are,” Youngjae said full of relief.

                “Thank you so much,” Daehyun said against Youngjae’s neck. Daehyun’s action mixed with his nice voice made a shiver run through Youngjae’s body.

                “You’re—You’re welcome,” Youngjae said still surprised.

                Daehyun slowly unwrapped his arms and slipped away from Youngjae, “Hey, I never got your name…”

                “Youngjae,” He pointed to his nametag.

                Daehyun laughed, “Right, I should have known.”

                “Well, if you think you will be able to escape the bathroom without help, I’m going to get back to work.”

                Daehyun smiled, “Yeah, it seems I’m done crying. I’ll see you later, Youngjae.”

                “Uhh yeah, bye,” Youngjae didn’t even want to think about what the other meant, and walked away. Youngjae just hoped that Daehyun had said it as habit, something he said to his friends and not in some creepy way.

                Youngjae groaned when he noticed how much time he had wasted with Daehyun and ran back to the room he was supposed to be cleaning. Once there he went through the motions, sweeping, wiping the rails, checking for anything broken, and the like. His mind was back to thinking about the comforts of home and how delicious fried chicken sounded at that moment.

                By the time Youngjae made it to the locker rooms, his exhaustion had completely taken over him. Even changing his clothes seemed like a chore.

                “Youngjae! I thought you would be out of here by now,” Jongup said as he walked in to join him.

                “Yeah… I had a crier.”

                Jongup laughed, “Is that who was hanging off of you earlier?”

                Youngjae groaned as he changed his shirt, “You saw that?”

                “Nah, Sunhwa and Jieun were talking about it the hallway.”

                “Already?!”

                “You know how gossip is here,” Jongup smiled.

                “Yeah,” Youngjae finished changing and closed his locker.

                “You have to tell me what happened.”

                Youngjae smiled, “Maybe next time. I’m tired.”

                “Alright then, I’ll see you Sunday.”

                “Later,” Youngjae waved goodbye as Jongup began to change. Youngjae stretched and yawned as he made his way to the front door. He was wiping the tears, caused by the yawn,  away from his eyes when he walked outside.

                “Did you watch a sad movie, too?”

                Youngjae looked up in surprise, “Daehyun? No, no I was yawning… what are you still doing here?”

                ‘Oh god…’ Youngjae thought as Daehyun smiled, ‘What if he was being creepy earlier? What if he has decided to become my stalker?!’

                Daehyun scratched his neck and looked down sheepishly, “I was feeling bad about earlier and making you deal with me like that and I thought I could make it up to you and buy you a coffee.”

                ‘He really is going to be creepy! I know I’m good-looking but—‘

                “If you don’t want to, I understand. I mean it is weird. I was just thinking I wanted to see you afterwards and maybe have you see me when I wasn’t crying and well wait no… I mean I wanted to repay you for helping me out…”

                Youngjae laughed. He couldn’t help himself anymore at seeing Daehyun making a fool out of himself yet trying so hard to ask him out. Youngjae smiled, “How about we go somewhere I can eat. I’m starved.”

                Daehyun smiled excitedly, “Sounds great!”

                “But,” Youngjae looked at him sternly, “you can’t stalk me at work.”

                “I… I—what?”

                Youngjae walked up to him and patted him on the back, “Let’s go eat.”

                “Do I look like the stalker type?” Daehyun asked as Youngjae started walking them toward the subway station.

                “You cried in an action movie and then waited outside for me to finish work, sounds stalker-ish.”

                “What does crying have to do with anything? And it was sad! Did I not explain?!”

              Youngjae smiled as they walked down the stairs to get to the subway, “It has everything to do with being a stalker.”

                Daehyun gaped but, followed Youngjae anyhow, “That just makes no sense.”

                Youngjae laughed at how cute Daehyun looked when he was confused, ‘I think I can find enough energy to tease this guy for a while.’

                “How about you explain to me how you aren’t a stalker.” Youngjae laughed silently as Daehyun let out a frustrated noise and stuttered about not knowing why he had to explain. ‘Yeah this is going to be a lot of fun.’

A/N: thanks for reading! Let me know what you think, suggestions, comments, critics, etc. ^_^